1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a novel class of antibacterial compounds and more specifically, the present invention is directed to a novel class of antibacterial compounds which are termed N-chloroamino acid derivatives as described later. The term "antibacterial" as employed in this application, includes both "antifungal" and "antibacterial" activity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
N-chlorinated naturally occurring amino acids as well as their derivatives are presently known. However, in the main, these compounds have not been isolated, or if isolated, can undergo rapid and often explosive decomposition. Illustrative of such a compound undergoing explosive decomposition upon isolation is methyl N-chlorosarcosinoate. Unpublished data, James J. Kaminski and Nicolae S. Bodor, Nov. 1, 1972.
Similarly, simple chloramines (e.g., chloramine per se) can undergo disproportionation, providing as one by-product NCl.sub. 3, a well-known toxic material.
Due to the low water solubility and low boiling point of simple chloramines, they simply evaporate too quickly from an aqueous solution, and as such, a sterilizing aqueous solution containing a simple chloramine is characterized by extremely low persistency.
Moreover, the simple chloramines (e.g., NH.sub.2 Cl, NHCl.sub. 2) are known to be readily deactivated by denaturing agents (e.g., horse serum), thus quickly diminishing the antibacterial activity of such compounds.
Methyl-.alpha.-N,N-dichloroaminoisobutyrate is also known, but only to the extent that it has been used to study the mechanism and kinetics of the dimerization of N,N-dichloro derivatives in strong bases. As such, no known utility has been recognized for this compound. See, A. M. Pinchuk, L. N. Markovskii and G. K. Bespalko, Zh. Org. Khim., 7, 2263 (1971).